What what?

The word for what in French is "que". You could thus ask a question such as:

Que fais-tu?      What are you doing.

There is a different situation in English where we use the word "what". Consider the sentence:

I do not understand what you are doing.

This sentence is not a question. In French, we cannot simply replace the English word "what" with "que" when we are not using "what" as the first word in a question. Let us take the sentence above and paraphrase it in English to yield:

I do not understand that which you are doing.

Notice how "what" has been replaced by two words "that which". It is this exact construction we use in French to say "what" in a sentence like the one given in the example. "That which" is translated as "ce que". Thus, the correct sentence in French would be:

Je ne comprends pas ce que tu fais.

Here are some more examples.

Examples

Je déteste ce que tu m'a dit.          I hate what you said to me.
[I hate what that which you said to me.]

Ce que je voulais dire c'est
qu'il viendra.                                     What I meant to say is that he is coming.
[That which I meant to say
is that he is coming.]

J'aime bien ceux que vous
avez acheté.                                     I like the ones you bought.
[I like those that you bought.]

Build or fight

Two French words people sometimes struggle with are "battre" and "bâtir", specifically when it comes to conjugation these. You really do not want to get the conjugations wrong as you might end up telling someone you are fighting rather than you are building something.

For a long time, I struggled to remember which word meant what. The trick that helped me was to remind myself that "bâtir" uased to contain an 's'. I know this  because of the use of the circumflex. Thus, somewhere in the mists of time the word was something like "bastir". The word "bastir" reminds me of the English word "bastion", which is a type of building. Therefore, "bâtir" means to build. I wonder, by the way, if the word "bastille" is somehow derived from "bastir".

I am not going to give the full conjugations of the two verbs. Instead I will give only the present tense of "nous" for each verb:

Nous battons      We fight/We beat
Nous bâtissons   We build

Reflecting on the Reflexive

Read the conversation below:

Adam: I am going to shave.
Jacques: Who are you going to shave?
Adam: I am going to shave myself. Who else?
Jacques: Well, you should have said so in the first place, you idiot. If you do not say who you are going to shave, you could be shaving anyone.
Adam: You are a pervert.
Jacques: No, I am French. You must not be an English idiot.
Adam: I want to shower.
Jacques: Who do you want to shower? Oh la la.
Adam: I want to shower. You know, I want to wash myself.
Jacques: You idiot. You got me all excited. You should have told me you were going to shower yourself. You must always tell me who you are going to shower.
Adam: I want to brush my teeth.
Jacques: You are learning idiot but your style is poor. You should say "I want to me to brush the teeth".
Adam: Have you been drinking?
Jacques: Just a little wine.
Adam: You must you stop from drinking.
Jacques: Ah, you are starting to speak the beautiful French.

In all languages, we have what are called transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. A transitive verb is one that must take an object or similar, for example, "feel". You would never sa "I feel". Something is missing. What do you feel? How do you feel? This verb has to have something after it. An intransitive verb is one that does not require something afterwards, for example, "understand". You can say "I understand" and that would make perfectly good sense. Yes, you can put something afterwards as in the sentence "I understand French" but it is not always required as is the case with transitive verbs. In French, most verbs are transitive verbs. You almost always have to say to whom or what you are performing an action.

Examples

Je me douche.                    I am showering (me).
Il se lave.                           He is washing (himself).
Elles se vont.                     They are leaving. (Literally: They are making themselves go.)
Le bus s'arrêtte.                 The bus is stopping (itself).
Nous nous battons.            We are fighting. (Literally: We are making each other fight OR we are
                                           fighting to us.


Remember that in the perfect tense, we use the verb être and not avoir with reflexive verbs. Hence, we have the examples below.

Examples

Je me suis douché.             I showered.
Il s'est lavé.                        He washed.
Elles se sont allées.            They washed.
Le bus s'est arrêté.             The bus stopped.
Nous nous sommes battus. We fought/We had a fight.

Have need of...

People often think it is strange that the English word "need" is translated by three words in French "avoir  besoin de". However, if you think about it, it is not that strange. It is possible in English to say "I have need of a friend". This is exactly what French speakers say all the time "have need of". So now you know: "J'ai besoin d'un ami" is not such a strange thing to say :-D.

Means of Transport Prepositions

Sometimes people have difficulty remembering if they should say "en voiture" or "à pied" or which preposition should preceed the means of transportation. Actually, if you understand the constructions, it becomes easier. Remember that "en" can mean "in", at least in an abstract to slightly abstract sense. Imagine you want to go somewhere by car. You will be in the car when you travel. Now, you do not want to say something like "Je vais dans la voiture" because it would not be clear what you meant. Do you mean you are already inside the car and are moving around? If so, where are you trying to get to inside the car? That would be a bit bizarre. Are you trying to say you are getting into the car? Also, you are not referring to a specific car. You are not trying to say "I am going by the car". You are referring to a car in a semi-abstract sense, as a means of transport. There is no indication in the sentence "I am going by car" which specific car you will be taking. Now that I have bored you to death with why it is correct to say "en" rather than "dans" in this situation, let us look at some examples with "en":

Examples

en voiture          by car
en bicyclette      by bicycle (I know you do not get into the bike but we use "en" anyway)
en avion             by plane
en train               by train
en bus                 by bus
en bâteau            by boat

Let us now turn our attention to the word "pied", which means foot. It would not make sense to say "en pied". How would you get into your own foot to go somewhere? You would instead go on foot. Do not try to say "Je vais sur mon pied". Are you trying to say you are going to walk on your on foot or stand on top of it? It does not make sense. We thus use à, which is sometimes used as a kind of abstract preposition when all other prepositions fail, that is when they do not fit. Here are some examples where we use à.

Examples

à pied                 on foot
à cheval              on horseback, by horse

Lastly, I want to talk about the use of "par" with means of transport. You might hear the phrase "par avion", which means "by plane". Why is it sometimes "par avion" and not "en avion"? The explanation is simple. If you want to send a parcel or letter by air mail, the plane becomes your instrument for delivering something. You yourself are not getting on the plane and are certain not being delivered. Hence "en" would be unsuitable. We therefore use "par".

Examples

par avion          by plane
par courrier      by courier
par train            by train
par bâteau         by boat

Weird for English Speakers

As I said in an earlier post, prepositions in French do not always correspond exactly to those in English. Two specific instances in French that are counterintuitive to English speakers are:

Je prends les jouets dans la boîte.                       I took the toys out of/from the box.
J'ai acheté la bicyclette à Jacques.                      I bought the bicycle from Jacques.

The way I made sense of these constructions as an English speaker is to try to get into the frame of mind of a French speaker. In the first example, I told myself that to get the toys I would need to put my hands inside the box and grab the toys while my hands were in there.

In the second example, I told myself I need to go to Jacques to buy the bicycle.

If you think about it, both the prepositions in English and French make sense in these instances based on how they are generally understood and used in the respective languages. The point is that we need to learn the logic behind how prepositions are used in French just as a French speaker would have to learn the logic behind how prepositions are used in English.

Go out, Take out

The French verb "sortir" can mean both to go out and to take out.

Examples

Je sort ce soir.                I am going out tonight.
Je sort le chien.              I am taking/letting the dog out.

"Sous Le Vent"

One of many French songs I like is "Sous Le Vent" by Celine Dion and Garou.

It is a good idea to buy French music just to see if you can pick up a few words here and there and maybe even understand entire sentences. Of course, one day you will understand entire songs :-).

Jouer Au or Jouer Du?

For a long time I was never sure whether I should use "au" or "du" after the word "jouer". The rule is simple: use "au" with sports and "de la" or "du" with musical instruments.

Examples

Je joue au tennis.
Je joue au foot.
Je joue de la guitarre.
Je joue du piano.

Quand vs Lorsque

"Quand" corresponds exactly to the English word "when" in circumstances where "when" is linked to time.

Examples

Quand allez-vous?                                  When are you going?

Je te visiterai quand je serai à Lyon.       I will visit you when I am in Lyon.

Je me sentais mal quand j'ai vu ça.          I felt bad when I saw that.


"Lorsque" can be used in exactly the same way as "quand" to mean "when" except when forming a question. Thus, it would be correct to say:

Je te visiterai lorsque je serai à Lyon.       I will visit you when I am in Lyon.

Je me sentais mal lorsque j'ai vu ça.          I felt bad when I saw that.


However, it would be incorrect to say:

Lorsque allez-vous?                                  When are you going?
[My skin is crawling right now because this sounds so awful.]


One other use of "quand" corresponds to the English conjunction "whenever". An example would be:

Quand il arrive, je sort.                              Whenever he comes, I leave.

"Lorsque" does not mean "whenever" ever. Whenever you want to say whenever use "quand".


Finally, "lorsque" can mean "when" when in English "when" actually means "whereas". Here are some examples:

Il jouait au tennis lorsqu'il devait étudier.   He was playing tennis when/whereas he should have been
                                                                     studying.

Si je voyais un serpent je me fuirais            If I were to see a snake I would run away when/whereas
lorsqu'il faudra ne pas bouger.                     I should stand still.

I certainly doubt the subjunctive is needed

In an earlier post, I wrote that one of the instances in which we use the subjunctive is when we want someone to do something. The correct turn of phrase for this in French is "I want THAT so-and-so does something or other". For example, to say "I want him to leave", we would need to say "I want that he leaves" or, in French, "Je veux qu'il parte".

Another common situation when we use the subjunctive is when we are very uncertain about something. So, for example, the word "doûter" (to doubt) is always followed by the subjunctive. The reason is simple: the subjunctive mood indicates something that is not happening in the real world (we have the indicative mood for that). When I say I doubt something will happen, I am saying that, based on my perceptions, in the real world that thing will not happen. Only in a theoretical alternate universe would that thing happen. Thus, for example, if I wanted to say "I doubt you will come", I would say in French:

"Je doûte que vous veniez."

I do not wish to say "vous venez" as that would be the indicative mood, meaning that you will come. Based on my perceptions, the only time you would come would be in a non-existent world. Perhaps I do not think you will come because I think you are unreliable or perhaps the event to which you have been or might be invited is bungee jumping and I do not believe you have the courage to do it. The point is, once again, that I firmly believe that in the real world you will never come.

Other turns of phrase that indicate doubt include:

Je ne pense pas que...
Je ne crois pas que...
Je ne suis pas certain que...
J'ai peur que...

There is more to the subjunctive but as mentioned in an earlier post, it is better to break it into bite size chunks and to get used to using the subjunctive in a few situations. Later on you can focus on some more scenarios.

Some good news for you about the subjunctive: between this post and the last, you have learnt most of the very common instances when you would use the subjunctive. You are therefore, if you apply what is in the two existing posts, quite unlikely to make mistakes in most instances as regards the subjunctive.

Before I leave you, I want to tell you that the opposite of doubt is certainty. Suppose I say "I am certain you will come". You could argue that there is not 100% certain you will come as yo uhave not said you will come; it is simply my belief that you will. That said, in my mind I am so certain you will come that it is as a reality to me that you will come. In other words, in my perception of reality it is a fait accompli; it is as good as if it happened. I would thus use the indicate mood. The translation of the sentence "I am certain you will come" is"

Je suis certain que vous viendrez.

Other phrases that are followed by the indicative mood indicate:

J'espère que...
Je pense que...
Je crois que...
Je sais que...

Faillir

In English, we often use the words "just" or "nearly" to indicate a narrow miss. In French, this is translated using the word "faillir", which could loosely be translated as "failed".

Examples

Il a failli avoir un accident.             He almost had an accident.
Elle a failli mourir.                          She nearly died.
J'ai failli rater l'avion.                      I nearly missed the plane.

The Use of the Imperfect Tense

The correct way to use the imperfect tense in French is possibly one of the biggest headaches for students of French. It is still a bit of a headache for me and still makes me nervous and uncomfortable. Still, I have learnt a bit about it and am going to share with you what I know and what I think I know. I sincerely hope that what I tell you will help you rather than cause difficulties for you.

If you recall an earlier post, I wrote that it is sometimes dangerous to draw analogies between two languages. The imperfect tense is a perfect example of this. The second you try to assign a specific meaning to the imperfect tense in Frencgh, you will become thoroughly confused and will make mistakes. When learning the imperfect tense in French, simply learn its functions - its uses - rather than trying to derive some kind of meaning.

Nothwithstanding the above, there is one instance where it is easy for English speakers to decide if they should use the imperfect tense in French: if the sentence is in the imperfect in English then it will be in the imperfect in French.

Examples

I was reading a book.                    Je lisais un livre.
I was leaving when he arrived.     Je sortais lorsque il est arrivée.

Besides the examples listed, we use the imperfect in French for the following as well:

1. To indicate we used to do something
2. To indicate something we used to do habitually
3. To indicate something that went on for some time
4. To provide background information

Examples (Used to)

J'habitais en Londres.           I used in live in London.
Elle comprenait russe.          She used to understand Russian.

Examples (Habitual Actions)

Le lundi je visitais à ma sœur.              Every Monday I would/used to visit my sister,
Chaque mois je mangeais a ce bistro.   Each Month I ate/used to eat at this bistro.

Notice how in the examples above we could translate them using the words "used to". In other words, the situation of habitual action is actually exactly the same as the first situation where someone used to do something. Also notice how it is possible in the second example above to use the perfect tense of the word "eat", i.e. "ate" in the English translation. Do not even try to establish a correspondence between the perfect tense in English and/or the perfect and/or the imperfect tense in French. Always think about what the generic functions of the imperfect tense are in French and then, based on those, you can decide to use, or not use as the case may be, the imperfect tense.

Examples (Something that went on for some time)

J'habitais en Londres.       I lived in London.
[You did not live in London for just one second.]

En 2002 j'étais à Paris.     In 2002, I was in Paris.
[You were not in Paris for just one second unless you had a teleportation device.]



Examples (Providing Background Information) 

L'orchestre jouait de la musique pendant que je prenais du dîner.
The bank played music while I ate my dinner.

Notice how in the English translation I used the perfect. Again, avoid thinking that the perfect in English must always be translated by the perfect in French. Here it is translated by the imperfect. The main action you could argue is that I am eating dinner. The fact that the band was playing music is additional, background information. You will often find the imperfect used in novels and in storytelling as it is often necessary to give background information. Also, if you think about this particular example and the English translation, it does not really make sense to say "the band played" as if they had finished playing. We understand that they played for a period of time while I was eating. In fact, if you think about it, you will realise that the English sentence uses the form of the perfect tense but the implied meaning is actually the imperfect.


I hope that so far you are reasonably okay with what I have said about the imperfect tense in French. I want to stress again that a big source of confusion for students of French is when they use the perfect tense in English and then try to logically link it in a one-to-one correspondence with French. Never ever do this. Never! Stick to what the functions of the imperfect tense are in French.

Let me now turn to when the imperfect tense in French really does cause tons of confusion for English speakers. In fact, it is debatable whether it is the imperfect tense or the perfect tense causing the confusion. Let us look first at the easier examples of when the perfect tense in English is translated by the perfect tense in French: if something happened and you are not trying to indicate any kind of duration, then use the perfect tense.

Example

Je lui ai dit.      I told him.
[I am not trying to say I was busy telling him or I used to tell him or that I told him something on a periodic or regular basis. In one instant, one moment, one second, I told him something and that was it.]

Let us turn to the trickier examples. Let us translate the English sentence "I was in Paris in 2002" using both the perfect and the imperfect tense and let us then discuss the difference:

1. En 2002 j'ai été à Paris.
2. En 2002 j'étais à Paris.

Both sentences indicate I was in Paris but there is a slight difference in meaning or emphasis. In the second example the emphasis is on the duration (since I used the imperfect tense). In other words I am telling you something like "I lived in Paris in 2002". In the first example, there is no duration indicated (no imperfect tense), thus the emphasis falls on the act. The act is that I was in Paris, in other words I visited Paris. I know, I know, you could argue that you visited Paris for a few weeks, which is of some duration. I had those same questions over the years. Perhaps the distinction will become clearer if we temporarily ignore the phrase "en 2002". We would then have:

1. J'ai été à Paris.
2. J'étais à Paris.

To translate number 1, we could say "I have been to Paris". It is impossible to translate number 2 in this way. It can only be translated as "I was in Paris (for some time)". Getting back to the sentences containing "en 2002", we obviously cannot say in English "In 2002 I have been in Paris". However, the direct translation is neither important nor helpful in this case.Focus on the fact that someone is stressing they have been to Paris; they have visited the city.

Suppose you did visit Paris in 2002 and then you visit it again in 2013. When you get there you start speaking to one of the locals and you want to tell them you were in Paris in 2002. If you were to use sentence number 2, it would not make much sense. It would be like saying:

"In 2002, I used to be in Paris"
"In 2002, as background information for a story I am going to tell you as if I were writing a novel, I was in Paris." So, what happened next? Did you run into James Bond?


Let us consider two commonly used words that also cause headaches for English speakers learning French: vouloir and penser.

Consider these sentences:

1. J'ai voulu aller à Paris.
2. Je voulais aller à Paris.

In the second sentence, I am saying that I wanted for some time to go to Paris. In other words, I am saying "I have always wanted to go to Paris". Did I actually get there? Probably not, otherwise I would not have said "I have always wanted to go to Paris". Of course, I might also be giving you background information about how I had always wanted to visit Paris and later on in my story I might tell you how I actually made it.

Consider sentence 1. Perhaps I was having a bad day and in one second of that day I just felt like chucking it all up and moving to Paris. Perhaps I did. I might also utter sentence 1 when I decided on the spur of the moment to visit Paris. Sentence 1 might also be the answer to a question like "Why did you go to Paris?". The answer would be "Because I wanted to (at that moment)" (if we made adjustments obviously to sentence 1).

Let us consider an example with penser:

1. J'ai pensé à toi.
2. Je pensais à toi.

Again, the first example indicates something on the spur of the moment. Perhaps I saw a particular flower that you like and that reminded me instantly of you. In the second example, I have been thinking about you for some time. Perhaps I miss you, in which case we might translate sentence two as "I have been thinking about you".

I hope that my longwinded explanation of the uses of the imperfect have helped rather than muddied the water. I am certainly the first to admit that it can be very confusing for an English speaker. Remember: do not translate the English tense with the (seemingly) corresponding French tense in most instances. There are very few situations where there is a one-to-one correspondence.

Introduction to the Subjunctive

In French, and in English and many other languages for that matter, there are both tenses and moods. A tense tells us about the timing of an action,  ig it is happening now (present tense), if it will still happen (future tense), if it has already happened (perfect tense).

Moods on the other hand tell us if something is actually happening (indicative mood), if it is a possibility or uncertainty (subjunctive mood) or if someone is bering told to do something (the imperative mood). In English, we have both the indicative mood and the imperative mood. However, we no longer have the subjunctive mood. We used to, a long time ago, but it disappeared somewhere along the way.

If this is your first encounter with the subjunctive mood, I would suggest you ease your way into it. For the moment, learn how to use it in one situation only, namely the one I will describe shortly. If your French is not perfect because you do not use the subjunctive in other situations where you are supposed to, that is okay. You can fix that at a later date. Remember: Do not try to eat an entire meal in one gulp. You will not be able to do it and you will suffer at the same time. Take one small bite at a time.

Getting back to the subjunctive, consider this sentence:

I want you to learn French.

In this statement I am not saying that you are learning French. I am telling you something that I wish you were doing, something that is not actually happening. You could, for the moment anyway, think of the subjunctive mood as the alternate universe mood. If we look at my example again using the alternate universe analogy, we could say that in the real universe you are not learning French but in the alternate universe I have created in my head, you are learning French (I want you to).

In a less complicated nutshell, everytime someone wants or wishes someone to do something or wants or wishes something to happen we use the subjunctive.

To say "I want you to learn French" in French, I would say:

Je veux que vous appreniez le français.

Notice the construction: "I want THAT you do something". Always use the word "that" in this construction.

More Examples

Mon ami veut que je lui visite.              My friend wants me to visit him.
[My friend wants that I visit him.]

Je souhaite que tu écoutes.                    I wish you would listen.
[I wish that you listen.]

Il faut qu'on pense avant de parler.       One should think before speaking.
[It is necessary that one thinks
before speaking.]

Note: If you use the construction il faut que, the subjunctive is obligatory. However, if you use only il faut (without que), you can then use the subjunctive if you feel like it or you can use the indicative if that is how you feel. In other words the two sentences below are both correct:

Il faut vous essayez.
Il faut vous essayiez.

Liaison

You might wonder why, if letters at the ends of words are often silent, we still write these. One of the reasons is that these letters were once pronounced and stuck around in the orthography. However, a more important reason is that French children learn unconsciously that there were once such letters before they even learn to read. This sounds all rather mysterious. Let me clarify.

Consider the words "les amis". In theory, it should sound something like "le ami". However, if you say "le ami", it sounds a little jerky. It does not flow nicely. People in general like their languages to flow but few like it more than the French. To make the speech flow in the example given, French speakers attach the 's' to "amis" and pronounce it as a 'z'. This process of adding the last consonant of a word to the following word is called "liaison".

Now, it needs to be borne in mind that in the old days, liaison was always observed. However, nowadays it is applied most of the time, not always. There is no rule for when it should not be applied. When in doubt, rather just use it. The easiest way to learn when not to use liaison is to have conversations with French speakers. You will then pick up their speech habits without even trying.

Here are a few more examples of liaison:

Je veux une boisson.
[The x is joined to "une" and is ponounced as a 'z'.]

Il est allé.
[The 't' is joined to "allé" and is pronounced as a 't'.]

Apprend-il?
[The 'd' is joined to "il" and is pronounced as a 't'.]


I would like to share a tip with you that worked for me when I was trying to use liaison. I found that when I tried to add the consonant of the one word to the beginning of the second word, my speech was still a bit staggered and slowed down. Thus, for example, I would say "le zami" with a pause between "le" and "zami". I found that if I looked at liaison differently, my pronounciation improved. Instead of adding the consonant to the next word, I pronounced it as part of the first word. Thus, I started to pronounced "les amis" as "lez ami". I found that the pause between the two words disappeared and my speech flowed. Perhaps this tip will work for you too or perhaps I am just a little off balance :-).

Consonants that won't be silent

In almost all nouns, the letters 's' and 't' are silent if they are the last letters in the word, e.g. le fait, le pas, le secret. There are, however, a few words where these consonants are pronounced and these simply need to be learnt. These words include:

le but               goal
le bus              bus
le médium        medium (word ends in -ium)
la dot               dowry
l'os                  bone (the 's' is pronounced only in the singular)
le pénis            penis
l'anus               anus (I really have no idea what the deal is with some body parts. Perhaps
                       the endings -us and -is are taken from Latin)
l'oued              wadi

Je dors; Nous dormons? But Why?

You will probably be taught that "dormir" is an irregular verb. It certainly seems to be in the present tense but it is not actually. "Dormir" comes from the Latin verb "dormire". The conjugation of this verb in the present tense in Latin was:

Dormio                            Dormimus
Dormis                             Dormitis
Dormit                             Dormiunt

Notice how each conjugation has an 'm'. So, what happened between the time Nero fiddled and the Eiffel tower was built?

If you have been studying French for a while, you will have notice how many times the letters at the ends of words are not pronounced. There is a similar process in certain dialects of English. Thus, for example, some English speakers would pronounce the word "got" as if it did not have a "t". In other words, they might say something like "I go' plans this weekend".

What happened in French over the centuries is that a lot of sounds at the ends of words stopped being pronounced. What you need to understand too is that some sounds in language are weaker than others, that is they are more prone to being dropped. These weaker sounds include 'm' and 'l'.

Let us get back to the French verb, "dormir". Notice that the stem is "dorm", which ends in 'm', a weak sound. Theoretically, the conjugations for this verb in the singular of the present should be:

Je dorm
Tu dorm
Il dorm
Elle dorm
[NOTE: I have deliberately misspelt these words to avoid unnecessary complications.]

Notice how each of these words is pronounced the same way. As time passed, French speakers stopped pronouncing the 'm', leading to the current pronunciation of:

Je dor
Tu dor
Il dor
Elle dor
[NOTE: Again, I have deliberately misspelt the conjugations.]

What about the plural? Since the 'm' is followed by 'ons' and 'ez' for "nous" and "vous" respectively, it is no longer at the end of the word and can thus not be dropped. This is why we today have:

Nous dormons
Vous dormez

The only mystery that remains is the one for "ils" and "elles". Here 'm' is followed by 'ent'. Of course, 'ent' is silent. That said, it was once pronounced so that 'm' was at one time not the last sound in the verb.

For all the reasons listed above, plus one that I did not mention, the conjugation of "dormir" in the present tense in modern French is:

Je dors                         Nous dormons
Tu dors                        Vous dormez
Il dort                           Ils dorment
Elle dort                       Elles dorment

Most verbs in French, if not all, are regular. They only seem irregular if you do not know the history behind them and all the other good things that happen in languages, like sound changes. If you want, you can read up on Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology.

Fun Fact

The French word "tête"  is derived from the Latin word "testa". In Latin, "testa" meant "pot". In Latin slang, people would refer to your pot rather than to your head. Well, that slang word stuck and became a proper French word, which means "head". You have to ask yourself: how many French speakers realise they have pots atop their shoulders?

Si, I meant to use oui

Some people will tell you that no means no. In French, however, yes does not always mean yes. You see, in French there are two words for "yes", "oui" and "si". Almost every time you answer a question you will answer "oui".

Examples (with oui)

Apprenez-vous français?                   Are you learning French?
Oui, j'apprends français.                    Yes, I am learning French.

Est-ce que tu as acheté des œufs?     Did you buy eggs?
Oui, j'en ai acheté.                            Yes, I bought some.


Let us now turn to "si". To understand how this word works, let us consider an example in English. Suppose you are hungry but you have not yet taken your lunch brea. Suppose too that someone asks you "Aren't you hungry?". How would you respond in English? Chances are you would say something like "No, I am". You are using the word "no" to contradict the negative question they asked. What I mean by negative question is that the person used the negative, that is the word "not"., If they had asked you "Are you hungry?" that would have been a positive question as the word "not" has not been used to negate any of the verbs.

Coming back to French, we do not use "non" to contradict a negative statement. Instead we use "si", which means "yes". The fact that it means "yes" is not really what you should be focussing on. You should focus on the fact that "si" contradicts a negative question.

Examples

N'apprenez-vous pas français?                  Are you not learning French?
Si, j'apprends français.                              No (literally yes), I am learning French.

Tu n'as pas acheté d'œufs?                        Did you not buy eggs?
Si, j'en ai acheté.                                        No (literally yes), I bought some.

Did you mean plus or plus?

The French word "plus" can mean "more" as well as"no more". Needless to say this can result in confusion. Fortunately, most of the time it is clear from the context, especially when "ne" is used to indicate the meaning "no more" or "no longer". Still, there are times where there might be confusion.

Suppose, for example, that you see a newspaper headline: "Plus de Policiers". Does this headline mean there will be more police or there will no more police? If the meaning is "more police", you should then pronounce the 's' of "plus". If the meaning is "no more police", then you should pronounce "plus" as usual, that is not pronouncing the 's' (as an 's' sound).

Seem strange? Seem counterintuitive or uncomfortable? If so, join the club. That is how I felt when I first found out that on occasion I needed to pronounce the 's' to avoid confusion and that it was up to me to judge each situation to decide whether or not there could be potential confusion. After a while though I got used to it.

"C'est plus un problème pour moi".

Never Can Be Ever

In an earlier post, I used the words "jamais", "aucun" and "plus" to indicate the negative. As a reminder, here are three examples with these words used to make negative statements:

Examples (with negative statements)

Nous n'avons jamais été en Amérique du Sud.
[We have never been to South America.]

Je n'en ai aucun.
[I do not have any.]

Il n'y a plus d'aliment.
[There is no more food.]


These same words can also be used to make positive statements. All we need to do is to drop 'ne'.

Examples (with positive statements)

C'est la chose la plus bizarre que j'ai jamais vu.
[It is the strangest thing I have ever seen.]

Est-ce que tu en as aucun?
[Do you have any?]

Il ya plus d'aliment dans la cuisine.
[There is more food in the kitchen.]

The Partitive

In English, we might say "I want coffee". However, in French you need to indicate the quantity, if you know it, or conversely indicate that you do not know the exact quantity. In French, one would say the equivalent of "I want some coffee". To render the meaning of the word "some" in this case, we use what is called the partitive.

The partitive is form by taking 'de' and the definite article, i.e. du, de la or de l'.

Examples

Je veux du café.                          I want (some) coffee.
[How much coffee? Some. No specific amount. Not one cup. Not 20 grams of coffee. Just some.]

J'ai acheté des fleurs.                  I bought (some) flowers.
[How many flowers did I buy? I did not stipulate. I just bought some or other unknown quanity.]

Je voudrais une bouteille d'eau.  I want a bottle of water.
[Here I am being specific. I want a bottle, that is one bottle, of water, hence we cannot use de l'.]

Je voudrais de l'eau.                    I want (some) water.
[How much water? I did not say. Therefore, the partitive is required.]

J'ai trois amis.                             I have three friends.
[I am being specific about how many friends I have and therefore cannot use the partitive.]

J'ai des amis.                               I have (some) friends.
[How many friends do I have? You do not know. I did not tell you. Thus I used the partitive.]

Noun + à + Verb

Remember from previous posts that à often has a conversion function? Suppose you want to say in French "I want something to eat". Let us consider the incorrect example below:

Je veux quelque chose manger.

In this sentence there is no connection between "quelque chose" and "manger". It is a little like saying in English "I want something eat". In fact, it sounds worse than the very rough English translation I have given.

The problem we have is that there is a noun, that is not the subject of the sentence, being followed by a verb. This is rather odd in French. The solution is turn "manger" into a kind of adjective. To convert "manger" into a (type of) adjective, we use à. The correct sentence is therefore:

Je veux quelque chose à manger.

This is a little like saying "I want some eating thing". Of course, we do not speak like this in English. The point though is that the verb needs to be changed into something resembling an adjective since the noun preceding the verb is not the subject of the verb. In English we use the word "to", which corresponds to "a". It may not seem that the word "to" is exactly equivalent to the "a" in French in this instance but it is.

Further Examples

Marie a acheté un livre à lire.
[Marie bought a book to read.]

Quelqu'un à aimer, c'est très important.
[Someone to love, that's very important, i.e. It's very important to have someone to love.]

An, Année, Bonjour, Bonne Journée etc.

Consider the two sentences below:

1. Good day.
2. Have a good day.

In the first sentence, we are greeting someone. However, in the second we are not but instead wishing someone a good day. To distinguish the two, we add "have a" in the second case. In French, instead of using "have a", we use a suffix, -ée.

Thus, the French equivalents of the sentences above would be:

1. Bonjour.
2. Bonne journée.

Other similar contrasting pairs include:

1. Bonsoir, Bonne soirée - good evening, have a pleasant evening/enjoy the evening
2. Bonne nuit, Bonne nuitée - good night, have a good night (I must say I have not heard Bonne nuitée very much over the years.)

Be careful now with the words "an" and "année". The best advice I ever read about these two words is to use "an" when enumerating, i.e. counting years. For all other situations use "année". Note: the rule I have given you is not entirely cast in stone. While it prevent you from making mistakes, sometimes it is okay to use "an" and "année" interchangeably.

Here are some examples with "an" and "année":

1. Il y a deux ans depuis je l'a vu.
[It has been two years since I last saw him.]

2. J'attends toute l'année pour ce moment.
[I have been waiting the whole year for this moment.]

3. Bonne année.
[Happy new year. More literally: Have a good year.]

In, Out, Front, Back

I do not know why but I struggled for a long time to come to terms with some very basic yet important nouns and prepositions in French. I refer to the English equivalents of in, inside, out, outside, front, back and similar.

Let us start by looking at NOUNS:

l'avant          THE front
l'arrière        THE back

"L'avant" does NOT mean "in front" or "in front of". It means "THE front", a noun. I know I am getting carried away with all the caps but I had to emphasise these kinds of things to avoid confusion for myself when trying to master these words.

Let us now change these nouns into prepositions. In English, we would say "in front of" and "behind". Notice how in English we sometimes use the word "of" to create a preposition from a noun. This is the same in French: we use "de".

Thus, we have de + avant = devant and de + arrière = derrière.

Examples

Il est à l'avant de l'avion.          He is in/at the front of the plane.[Perhaps he is in Business Class.]
Il est à l'arrière de l'avion.        He is in/at the back of the plane. [He is in Economy Class.]
Il est devant l'avion.                 He is in front of the plane. [That could be dangerous.]
Il est derrière l'avion.               He is behind the plane. [Perhaps he is following the plane in a
                                               fighter jet.]


Let us know turn to inside and outside. Again, we will start with the nouns:

l'intérieur          THE interior, THE inside
l'extérieur         THE exterior, THE outside

To convert these into prepositions, we do use "de" but we attach "de" to synonyms rather than the words above. The prepositions are:

dedans          inside
en dehors      outside

Examples

Il est à l'intérieur de la maison.          He is inside the house.
Il est à l'intérieur/dedans.                   He is inside.
Il est à l'extérieur de la maison.         He is outside the house.
Il est à l'extérieur/en dehors.              He is outside.

Notice how we can use à l'intérieur and à l'extérieur instead of dedans and en dehors respectively. However, we cannot use dedans or en dehors in place of à l'intérieur or à l'extérieur. So, for example, it would be wrong to say:

Il est dedans la maison.
Il est en dehors la maison.

Are you going to France or the Far East?

Suppose you wish to say "I am going to the Far East". The temptation is to say "Je vais à l'Orient". Grammatically, this is perfectly sound. However, there is a practical problem that has nothing to do with grammar. In France is a city called Laurient. Thus, if you were to say "Je vais à l'Orient" French speakers might think you are saying you are going to visit the French city of Laurient rather than the Far East, which, admittedly, is only a few thousand kilometres away.

To avoid confusion, French speakers break the rules and say "Je vais en Orient" when they mean they are going to the Far East.